Monet's Rouen Cathedral Series

#265

For me, a landscape does not exist in its own right, since its appearance changes at any moment.

— Claude Monet

The Spring Arts Festival is finally behind me! What an event. The entire process felt like a battle. I encountered roadblocks every step of the way and I had no choice but to navigate around them. The show itself was rife with turbulence on Saturday as it rained on and off throughout the day. The real kicker came around 4pm. The show closed up early because a small, but significant weather cell was heading straight for us. After consulting with Peter Senesac and Robert Goodlet on whether I should remove my work from the walls before it hit, the conclusion was a resounding yes. Couldn't hurt!

Thankfully I did because just as I was closing up the front door of the booth, after all the work was tucked safely away in bags and boxes, a strong gust of wind and rain came tearing through seemingly taking the entire booth off the ground. I was on a step stool at the door and held on to the booth for dear life. With shaky, wet hands I finally managed to zip up the front door. At this point the walls were swaying fiercely. Peter was helping me and grabbed on to one corner, and I the opposite. Over the howling wind I yelled out "what do we do!?" to which Peter replied "we're doing it!"

Spring Arts Information Booth flipped over, along with other vendor booths in the foreground. Yikes!

This was my first time "booth sailing" as they say. It left me stunned. Simultaneously on the verge of tears and laughter. I was immensely grateful that no damage was incurred, and for the wise counsel of Peter and Robert. Not to mention Peter's sailing abilities! We emerged in our yellow rain coats to assess any exterior damage to both of our booths. All was well.

We meandered down the street to check out the rest of the show. Not all booths were as fortunate as mine. Some booths were not properly weighted down, and they suffered for it. The Spring Arts information booth even took a flip. What a torrent of disaster in such a swift amount of time.

The show wasn't all that bad though! Although sales could have been better there were some appreciative patrons of my work, and for them I was grateful. In particular there was one man who made a comment that struck me. He came into the booth, we chatted about the work and the concept, and he went on his way seemingly inspired. Some time had passed when he seemingly appeared out of nowhere. He said my project reminded him of a series Monet had done of a cathedral. Monet painted the same Rouen Cathedral over the course of two years at varying times of day. I had never heard of this series and thanked him for the insight. I took to the internet in search of more information on the subject. How inspiring! He did thirty pieces total between 1892 and 1893, finishing them in his studio in 1894. It's interesting to see the variations in color and light, which is what he was best at.

Thinking back to the first edit I did where I used the oil paint filter, I decided this was the time to bring it back as an ode to Monet for week 38. I settled on one combination of settings for the oil paint filter. For each edit I adjusted color and light pretending to be at the monument at different times of day and weather conditions. Sometimes I flipped the canvas horizontally to pretend I was looking at it from the other side. I even tried to pay homage to Rouen Cathedral- Setting Sun, (Symphony in Grey and Pink) with edit #265.

What do you think of week 38's edits, particularly in relation to Monet's Rouen Cathedral? What are your thoughts on painting, or editing one subject as a series? Although this week hasn't been as visually exciting as some of the more recent weeks, a valuable lesson has been shared which highlights the merits of studying the same subject in more than one way on more than one day.